{"id":22151,"date":"2010-11-22T19:07:39","date_gmt":"2010-11-22T19:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=22151"},"modified":"2010-11-23T12:25:32","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T12:25:32","slug":"our-basic-strategy-is-unchanged-abts-exclusive-interview-with-amd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/our-basic-strategy-is-unchanged-abts-exclusive-interview-with-amd\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Our basic strategy is unchanged&#8221; &#8211; ABT&#8217;s exclusive interview with AMD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n                         google_ad_client = \"pub-7021221536180758\"; \/* 468x60, created 11\/11\/09 *\/ google_ad_slot = \"1949837292\"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>AMD and Nvidia are locked into what can only be described as a war &#8211; a virtual and perpetual battle to one-up each other.\u00a0 AMD and Nvidia both have amazingly different philosophies and yet they are all gamers at heart and both companies love, innovate and advance PC gaming aggressively.<\/p>\n<p>AMD is right to be particularly proud of their accomplishments in discrete graphics this year as Nvidia has had issues with introducing their Fermi DX11 architecture and AMD beat them to the market by over six months.\u00a0 Finally, in April of this year, Nvidia launched their <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=17550\">GTX 470<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=16475\">GTX 480<\/a> which were criticized for being hot-running, power-hungry and loud although they offered somewhat higher performance than AMD\u2019s HD 5850 and HD 5870. However, a few months later, Nvidia\u2019s newly reworked Fermi, the midrange GTX 460, turned out to be a very successful reworking of GF100 into GF104 that scaled well, ran cool, had good thermal characteristics, and overclocked well, and no doubt ate into AMD\u2019s then DX11 90% marketshare.<\/p>\n<p>To combat the GTX 460, AMD released <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=21598\">HD 6870 and HD 6850<\/a> which debuted last month.\u00a0 This is not AMD\u2019s high end which is to come later on this year, but rather their upper-midrange which is renamed from HD 58\u00d70 series and it is designed to take on and surpass Nvidia\u2019s most successful Fermi card, their \u201csniper\u201d, the GTX 460 in all of its variants.\u00a0 In AMD\u2019s mind it was \u201cgame over\u201d for Nvidia until next year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/chess1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22202\" title=\"chess1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/chess1.jpg?resize=304%2C378\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/chess1.jpg?resize=304%2C378 380w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/chess1-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last month at AMD&#8217;s Press Event in Los Angeles, they confidently launched their 6800 series as a successor to HD 5000  series, but targeted to specifically bring higher performance to a  lower price point.\u00a0 Considering that the HD 6870 is slightly faster and  more efficient than the HD 5850 and it is also cheaper than the HD 5850 at its launch last year, our conclusion is that AMD met their target.<\/p>\n<p>AMD\u2019s Press Event was called \u201cBelieve Your Eyes\u201d and they laid out their vision for the world\u2019s press. AMD feels that Fusion is uniquely suited to conquer the world and they stress the \u201cfirsts\u201d that they have accomplished, including being first to bring DX11 GPUs to market very quickly and successfully. They are quite proud of their marketshare and do not intend to allow Nvidia to make inroads.\u00a0 AMD points out the advantages of their Eyefinity which now allows more displays to be driven off of a single card rather than Nvidia\u2019s competing Surround solutions which require two similar video cards running in SLI to power it.<\/p>\n<p>Well, AlienBabelTech heard from AMD and they rightly thought that we\u2019d be interested in the latest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercuryresearch.com\/index.shtml\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.mercuryresearch.com\/index.shtml', 'Mercury Research']);\" >Mercury Research<\/a> &#8220;PC Graphics Market Share Update&#8221; for Q3 2010 which highlighted the fact that for the second   consecutive quarter AMD is the market share leader in discrete graphics.\u00a0 They pointed out that AMD has made further inroads in the notebook discrete graphics market last quarter, capturing   an additional 5.6 share points and surpassing a 60% share in the notebook   discrete total market.\u00a0 AMD feels that this demonstrates the   strength of their DirectX11 notebook discrete graphics product selection and also demonstrates AMD\u2019s ongoing focus on graphics. Clearly AMD is aiming for   continued success with the newly released AMD Radeon HD 6800 series   graphics cards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/hd68x0-sidebyside22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/hd68x0-sidebyside22.jpg?resize=360%2C283\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>AMD asked ABT if we would be interested in talking   to someone from AMD to get further information on their success to date,   and to hear about why they are so excited for continued success with the   latest AMD Radeon Series.\u00a0 Well, we jumped at this chance to interview one of AMD&#8217;s executives and as timing would have it, our interview coincided exactly with the release of Nvidia&#8217;s new GF110 flagship, <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=21778\">the GTX 580<\/a> which brought an even higher performing video card to market with none of the thermal and noise issues of the GTX 480 that it replaces.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Nvidia&#8217;s response to HD 68&#215;0 &#8211; Discounted GTX 460\/470s and GF110<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>We instantly saw Nvidia work to aggressively counter AMD&#8217;s new HD 68&#215;0  series by severely cutting their own prices on the GTX 470 and the  GTX460.\u00a0 Nvidia quickly positioned their 768 MB and stock 1GB versions  of the GTX 460 against the HD 6850 at $179 to $199, and their highly  overclocked GTX 460 versions against HD 6870 at $239.\u00a0 The result is  that it is difficult to find HD 6870s at their suggested pricing.\u00a0  And proof that Nvidia has fixed their issues with Fermi arrived with  the GTX 580 and a likely refresh of the GTX 4xx lineup to combat AMD&#8217;s  new 6000 series.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, AlienBabelTech  was fortunate to interview Stanley   Ossias, Director, Mobile Discreet  Graphics Product Management at AMD   this morning right about the time the  <a href=\"..\/?p=21778\">GTX 580 NDA ended<\/a>.\u00a0   Basically his message was that AMD expected this improved version of    Fermi and is well-prepared to counter it now and with their further    release of their upcoming HD 6000 series.\u00a0 They feel that AMD has the    right product and the right price point and that competition is good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AMD-619421.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22153\" title=\"AMD-6194(2)\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AMD-619421.jpg?resize=264%2C396\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AMD-619421.jpg?resize=264%2C396 550w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AMD-619421-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This graphics war is getting more and more exciting and ABT is  reporting right from the  battlefront for you.\u00a0 We had quite a few prepared questions, but unfortunately the interview was quite short and we focused on AMD&#8217;s strategy with this question:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> What is AMD strategy now that they  have a very hungry and  aggressive competitor after many months of being  the only DX11 game in  town?\u00a0 Especially now that Fermi has been  re-engineered to fix its  flaws.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, we were able to touch on these points before Mr. Ossias&#8217;s cell phone battery failed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Fusion &#8211; how it will enable AMD to be competitive in the netbook market<\/li>\n<li> Please give us a marketshare breakdown of DX11 parts<\/li>\n<li> What will happen to AMD&#8217;s low-end graphics cards once Fusion comes out, and how it will affect their profits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So  let&#8217;s head for the next page and get into the actual interview with Mr Ossias.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Introduction--> <!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>Our interview began pretty early right about 5:30 AM Pacific Time and this editor was just finishing up the <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=21778\">GTX 580 evaluation<\/a>.\u00a0 Here was an impressive flagship video card that had answered every one of the criticisms of the GTX 480 and it looked as though Nvidia was making an aggressive comeback.\u00a0 After exchanging pleasantries, I started off by asking Mr. Ossias <em>how the success of the GTX 460 and the  release of the GTX 580 have perhaps changed AMD\u2019s strategy now that they  are no longer the only DX11 game in town.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Mr. Ossias replied that AMD always anticipates competition and does not vary from their strategy of targeting individual segments by giving the best value in their respective price ranges.\u00a0 &#8220;AMD anticipates competition from Nvidia and does not need or intend to  vary from our existing strategy. We have a consistent strategy of  targeting individual segments and offering the best combination of  performance, features and value in each of the respective price ranges.  As an example of such value, AMD offers Eyefinity technology which  delivers a qualitative improvement in the gaming experience.\u00a0 So, AMD\u2019s  basic strategy is unchanged.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I next asked about<em> the DX11 breakdown into segments in Mercury\u2019s report regarding net and notebooks<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ossias said that AMD had a big proportion but no specific figures were available and he pointed out the high unit volume of mainstream products with mobility Radeon.\u00a0 &#8220;Regarding the DX11 share in notebook segment, according to Mercury   Research, AMD has sold over 82% of all DX11 GPUs thus far but they do   not break the percentage down specifically in the notebook market. AMD   is confident that its share is at least this high in the notebook market   and probably more as it has sold many millions of DX11 notebook GPU\u2019s   in the past year more than the competition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Part of AMD&#8217;s success with early penetration and domination of the DX11 market may be attributed to AMD in getting DX11 HW to game devs long before the HD 58X0 was released; it had started in April with fairly early silicon.\u00a0 According to Mr. Ossias, &#8220;This allowed us to sample the developers almost immediately after receiving our first silicon from the foundry.&#8221;\u00a0 AMD has got very good at writing graphics drivers for future products using advanced simulators.\u00a0 &#8220;Early seeding of developers allowed us to enable DX11  content to go into development well in advance so that DX11 titles were  available when our Radeon HD 5xxx series products hit the market later  in the year&#8221;.\u00a0 And this has given AMD a tremendous momentum in capturing and keeping over 80% of the DX11 market.<\/p>\n<p><em>I next asked for comment on DX11 and \u201cextreme tessellation\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mr Ossias said that AMD had a \u201cwell-balanced product\u201d.\u00a0 Since the game devs have been using AMD HW to create DX11 games for about 20 months already, AMD\u2019s upcoming HD 6000 series will be well-suited for these games and for rendering practical tessellation in game applications.<\/p>\n<p><em>We next talked about mobile discreet graphics and I asked about the external GPU. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ossias said that several products have it but the connector needs to become an industry standard.\u00a0 Many times a product needs an installed base of users to drive it forward.\u00a0\u00a0 He then explained how AMD was looking to offer a good range of notebooks for all users with their <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.amd.com\/us\/vision\/Pages\/vision.aspx\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/sites.amd.com\/us\/vision\/Pages\/vision.aspx', 'Vision']);\" >Vision<\/a> branding.<\/p>\n<p><em>We moved on to Fusion<\/em> and Mr. Ossias said that raising the graphics bar would make it more attractive to moving the industry forward.\u00a0 \u201cIt will not only mean better graphics, but it will raise the level of expectation for consumers so that the devs rush in to satisfy it.\u201d\u00a0 It is important that the future of graphics will be an important part of the PC experience.\u00a0 Eyefinity is an important part of it and \u201cwe simply haven\u2019t been exploiting what graphics can do\u201d.\u00a0 As to Fusion, AMD is also going to embed a powerful graphics processor into the silicon.<\/p>\n<p>We concluded our short interview by touching on <em>the relativity of performance of integrated (IG) vs. discrete  graphics.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There remains a significant gap between  internal graphics in existing platforms compared with the high  performance expectations created by very popular (high volume) upper-end discrete  products like the Radeon HD 5800, HD 5700 and new HD 6800 products.\u00a0  As the graphics bar is raised, the apps will target faster graphics as  their baseline and the overall user experience will benefit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At that point, a cell phone battery got dangerously low and we concluded the interview.\u00a0 I wish to give my thanks to Mr. Ossias for allowing ABT to interview him for our readers.\u00a0 Check our conclusion.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: The Interview--> <!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>We have been watching this intense see-saw battle between AMD Graphics and Nvidia for years.\u00a0 They both are no-compromise and no-nonsense companies that each love PC gaming and work to advance the state of the art in very different ways and with a completely different approach and dissimilar visions.\u00a0 This intense competition has brought only benefit to the PC gamer and anyone who uses graphics or video and competition also means generally lower prices for competing new technology.\u00a0 It is clear that AMD is going to continue to target their &#8220;price-point&#8221; segments with great value while Nvidia aims to have the fastest GPU as part of an overall &#8220;General Purpose Processor&#8221; vision.<\/p>\n<p>AMD is certain that their Future is Fusion &#8211; raising the graphics bar for everyone\u00a0 &#8211; and Nvidia looks to GPU computing that renders amazing graphics.\u00a0 AMD does not believe that Fusion will affect their profitability of discrete graphics and it will offer great opportunity for a better computing experience.\u00a0 As this graphics war heats up, ABT intends to report right from the battlefront and we will continue to bring you accurate news, great reviews and interviews with industry insiders.\u00a0 If you would like even more information and details that are not possible to cover here, we invite you to join our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/\">ABT Forum<\/a> and ask questions or speak what is on your mind.<\/p>\n<p>Please note that there is still time to enter our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=22054\">ABT-Galaxy Black Friday Contest<\/a> to possibly win a GTX 460!\u00a0 Thursday at midnight is the cutoff and our next contest is scheduled to start before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Happy gaming!<\/p>\n<p>Mark Poppin<\/p>\n<p>ABT Senior Editor<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Please join us in our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Forums<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Become a Fan on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142', 'Facebook']);\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech', 'Twitter']);\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the latest updates from ABT, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?feed=rss2\" target=\"_blank\">join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Join our Distributed Computing teams<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Folding@Home &#8211; 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